Synonymous
by Dexxella
Summary: Lust gets an insane idea, and she realizes that it's possible to lust for things other than sex. Things like power. And she's willing to fight the odds to earn her place at the top, even if it means destroying the one who created her.
1. The First Chapter

'Ello everyone! I'm Dexxella, and this is officially my first story to publish to this site~ I'm still trying to find a beta, so please excuse any mistakes. Actually, no, I lied-point out my mistakes, please, so I won't make them again. ^^ I know there are some in here, even though I edited this myself a few times.

Anyways, this chapter occurs at about episode eighteen in the Brotherhood series? I don't remember exactly which one, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere between the seventeenth and the twentieth, so yeah...xD I'm actually going to go look that up now. It's the episode where it shows Havoc going on a date with Lust who is posing as Solaris. From this point on, I'm going to have the story branch off from the manga/Brotherhood series, in a kind of _What if...? _scenario.

Yeah, I'm babbling. And probably not making any sense. Dx Sorry.

And so, without further ado, the story:

xxx

Jean Havoc stuck his hands in his pockets as he waited in the line in front of the local florist's shop. Actually, it was unusually long today, for reasons unknown to the blonde man. It wasn't a holiday. Hell, it wasn't even a weekend. It was a Tuesday for crying-out-loud. And yet, the line still wove all around the interior of the florists, out the door, and in front of two other buildings down the street.

"What a joke…" He mumbled to himself, taking a cigarette package out of his pocket. _Most of them are just here to catch a glimpse of Annabell, _Havoc mused, removing a single cigarette from the package and drawing a lighter from his other pocket. He lit the cancer-stick and smiled just a bit to himself.

_He_ wasn't there to see Annabell. Nope. No way. Not that she'd treat him kindly if he had gone there to see her. After the little incident involving the two of them and a swimming pool a few weeks ago, he'd be lucky if she didn't throw him out of the store on sight.

_I'll just make sure to go to a different register,_ was the conclusion Havoc's mind came to after a bit of thought. Because there was no way he could leave the florists without flowers. Not today, at least. Because there was someone he needed to impress, and, if he'd learned anything from the Colonel and his womanizing ways, it was that girls liked flowers. And jewelry. And other expensive gifts that Havoc couldn't afford.

He'd considered buying her jewelry, actually. There was a beautiful pair of diamond earrings that he'd seen when he passed by the jewelers. If he cut his food budget for the month in half, and took most of the savings out of his bank account, he'd have been able to afford them.

However, considering that it was only their third date (and that if he cut his food budget in half, Black Hayate would be receiving better meals than him), he'd grudgingly decided to go with the less expensive gift of flowers.

It took about ten minutes of impatiently waiting in line just for him to get inside the store, and when Havoc finally stepped foot in the air-conditioning, he cursed inwardly at what he saw.

_Just my luck. Annabell's the only one working here today, _He glanced out the door, and once again noted the length of the line, W_ell, that explains that._

He needed to get out of there, but, at the same time, he also needed to get flowers.

Glancing around the store, then back at the line, his mind raced as he tried to come up with a solution to his awkward situation. In one of his glancing-back-at-the-line moments, he saw her.

First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye.

She was standing about ten people behind him, and upon seeing her, his first reaction was to stand there in shock.

_The First Lieutenant likes _flowers? He almost found it hard to believe that she was interested in anything besides guns, her dog, and making the Colonel do his work. _I suppose she is a _girl _after all…_

Havoc was pondering the strange concept of Hawkeye actually acting girly at times, when an idea hit him.

"Yo, Hawkeye!" He called out, waving one hand up in the air to attract her attention. She looked up from what she was doing and smiled when she saw him, kindly returning his wave. It only took a few seconds for Havoc to stride over to where she was standing.

"I didn't know flowers were your thing," he commented, dropping his cigarette and putting it out with the top of his shoe.

"I didn't know they were yours either," she joked. Upon seeing the redness of his face after her comment, she simply shook her head, "I put them in my apartment. I like the way they smell."

Gradually recovering from being flustered from her taunt, and pleasantly surprised that the First Lieutenant was actually joking around, he returned with a lighthearted, "Well, my apartment's a bit too…manly for flowers."

Riza laughed a bit, "I assume they're for that woman you've been talking about at work lately."

"She's the one!" A smile lit up Havoc's face, "And actually, I was wondering if I could ask you a small, little favor."

"You don't get along with the florist, so you want me to buy flowers for you and then give them to you later?"

Havoc's jaw hit the floor, and he reached up to scratch the back of his head, "So I guess you know about what happened too?"

"Everyone in Central's heard, Havoc."

Havoc risked another nervous look at the woman behind the florist's counter, then turned back to Riza, and grinned sheepishly, "So, are you willing to help out an old friend?"

"I'll come to the General Store next-door with your flowers, and hand them to you there," Riza said, back to the matter of fact tone she used at work. Havoc just nodded his thanks and headed for the General store as quickly as he could.

xxx

"Lu-uh-st! Lu-uh-st! Oh, Lu-uh-st!" Envy sang as he danced down the hallway in Father's lair that led to each of the homunculi's rooms, "Where are yo-oo, Lu-uh-sttt?"

He hummed as he traipsed down the hall, smirking when he heard a muffled, "In my room, idiot."

With a small laugh, Envy kicked open the door to the room Lust claimed as her own, and slid inside.

Father had given each of the Homunculi a room to call their own. He'd simply muttered something about wanting his most important followers and loyal friends to be as comfortable as possible, and promptly alchemically modified the land under the city so that an entire complex of various rooms spread underneath the streets of Central. Along with individual rooms, Father had also granted them a kitchen, several bathrooms, a few studies, and plenty of lounge areas.

However, after a while, the lounge areas and studies lost their use and took to gathering dust as the sins found ways to occupy their time with activities outside of Father's lair. The kitchen was rarely used, seeing as Homunculi didn't actually _need _to eat. They could, but it wasn't a necessary function, so most of the time they didn't even bother with eating. And since they didn't have any use of the bathrooms if they didn't eat, the homunculi rarely entered the bathrooms either. Most of the sins no longer slept at Father's lair either; Pride and Wrath lived in the Furher's mansion, Sloth was too lazy to come back after he worked, so he just slept in the tunnel he was making, and Greed had run off ages ago. In fact, the only rooms that were still used regularly were Lust's, Envy's, and Gluttony's individual bedrooms.

Of all the rooms Father had created, Lust's was both the neatest and grandest. As the only female sin, she was the only one who really cared about decorative elements and such, (1) and she had made this very clear to Father before he alchemically fashioned the furniture for her room. The entire room had a rather antique feel to it, which was created by the old, dark wood that made up every piece of furniture. Ornate carvings ran up and down the sides of the tables and the chairs, and on her bed's headboard, an intricate scene had been engraved. What this scene was of, Envy didn't know. And he didn't particularly care, so he never asked.

As soon as Envy could see inside Lust's room, he spied her posing in front of a mirror in a floor-length red dress. She looked stunning-but then again, she always did. She was _Lust_ after all.

With a dramatic groan, she stormed over to her closet, taking off the dress in the process and hanging it up in a hurry, "What the hell do you want, Envy?"

Envy snickered as he took a seat on top of her desk, "Seems like you're really concerned about how you look for your _date_."

From the depths of her closet, Lust countered with a quick, biting, "It's not even a real date. And why do you care? Jealous of the lucky guy?"

With a flash of blue light, Envy transformed the skin on his face so that it was a pale, lime color, "I'm literally _green_ with Envy."

It took about a minute before Lust exited her closet, dressed in something completely different. She glanced over at Envy, rolled her eyes and spat out a sarcastic, "Well, aren't you _clever," _before continuing over to her mirror.

Envy blinked, and morphed his body so that his skin was a regular color again. He looked over at what Lust had put on this time, a purple, Xingeese dress with a high collar. Admittedly, she looked much better in her usual black gown, but after watching her study herself in the mirror for a while, Envy decided that she could pull the look off.

"You know," He said, bringing his knees up to his chest and resting his head on them, "I came up here to remind you that you're going to be late if you don't hurry up. We can't have our…informant breaking up with you."

"I think I should _inform_ you that I've never been broken up with before," Lust retorted, flipping her hair with her hand and turning around to face Envy. The female sin pointed at herself, silently asking him what he thought of the dress. Envy understood the implied question, and though he could have cared less what she looked like, he nodded his approval, and came back with a half-assed comeback, "Well, this might be the first time if you don't hurry up and leave."

In his mind, he knew she was right. She never had been broken up with, and she was amazing at talking her way out of things, so if something came up, she could easily reassure the love struck guy and have him wrapped around her deadly fingers once again. Lust would get the job done.

Lust didn't even reply to Envy's last comment, just rolled her eyes and headed for the door. It was already open from when Envy had kicked it in, so she just walked right on through, waving as she left. Right before she turned to walk down the hallway, she called back to Envy, "Since you seem so big on reminding me of things today, remind me to go shopping for higher collared clothes. It was rough finding something that covered my tattoo and wasn't completely hideous."

It wasn't like Envy to let anyone get the last word, so he rushed to the empty doorframe and shouted down the hall, hands cupped around his mouth, "I will if he doesn't break up with you for being late!"

xxx

Luckily for Lust, her date had been even later than she was. Havoc hurried into the little café thirty minutes late, out of breath, and holding a full bouquet of roses in his hands. Normally, she'd have been pissed off about her date arriving late, but she'd been twenty minutes late herself, and she couldn't afford to get mad at the guy. He was her key to the inside, after all, and it was her job to be as sweet as she could to him to get Colonel Mustang's innocent subordinate to spill every bit of info he knew.

He'd apologized instantly, but Lust comforted him with the typical, "It's fine. Really, I don't mind." They'd then exchanged the usual formalities.

"How are you?"

"Better, now that I've gotten to see you." (Havoc had turned tomato red when Lust said that and she'd smiled in amusement.)

"Same here. You look amazing today."

"Thanks, so do you. I really appreciate the flowers, roses are my favorite."

"I'm glad you like them I waited in a really long line just to…"

And the conversation had progressed from there. They talked about trivial things all through the drinks and the appetizer. Things like the weather, the service at the restaurant, and what was going on in their lives. Lust had to make hers up for the most part, but her date seemed to find it interesting enough.

But during the middle of their meal Lust brought up the one topic that she really wanted to talk about.

"Ugh, I'm so sore," she rolled her shoulders a bit, stretching out her back, "At work, they had me help move boxes into our new employee's office." Her cover story for her job was that she worked as a secretary for a small business on the outskirts of Central. On their last date, she'd made up a story about how they were looking for new recruits and she had to help with the interviews. Since it was work she wanted to talk about, she figured she'd follow up on her lie from last time to bring up the topic.

"Are you-"

Lust cut Havoc off before he could ask his question, "I don't really feel like talking about it. My work is so _dull_. All I do is sign papers and, apparently, move boxes." She rolled her eyes and sighed deeply, taking a sip of her drink before continuing, "Now your job is interesting. It must be exciting working for the military."

Havoc shrugged, following her lead and taking a small sip from his own drink, "Eh, Mustang just keeps me busy with paperwork. Sometimes I wonder why I follow that ol' bastard. If he wasn't such a good friend, I'd have ditched him long ago. Can't wait 'till I eventually get promoted one day and get to run something myself."

Lust could tell he wasn't serious just by the way he said it. She knew that he'd never ditch Mustang. It was easy to figure out. He made a few comments here and there that relayed to her how devoted Havoc really was to his superior. But she played along.

"If it's that miserable, come work with me," she teased, placing her elbows on the table and leaning in closer to him, "Work would be much more enjoyable for the both of us then." She winked seductively and leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs to sit comfortably.

"Heh, so we both follow boring bosses at boring jobs," Havoc lifted his glass, "here's to wondering what makes them so important that we have to follow them." With a smirk, he added a repartee, "Especially someone as bright as you. Hell, you deserve to be head of the company!"

Lust wasn't the type of girl to freeze instantly out of shock. In fact, if something particularly shocked her, she didn't show much of a reaction at all. She'd just blink a couple times, and stare out into space for a few seconds to reflect on whatever it was that shocked her. And there was something about Havoc's comment that made Lust space out for a little while.

_What makes them so important,_ Lust wondered, _that they deserve to be followed..._

"Solaris?"

Lust snapped back to reality as Jean waved his hand in front of her face. "Oh, sorry," she lied, forcing herself to blush and look down at her feet, "I was just embarrassed by your comment. It was too sweet of you." After several seconds, she looked back up, a flawless mask of a smile lighting up her face, "But I suppose, I could drink to that."

xxx

Yeah, I know. Nothing much really happens in this chapter. Dx I was going to make it go on longer so I could try and get into the exciting stuff, but I was already on my sixth page in Microsoft Word.

Oh! That reminds me. I'm not sure exactly what the norm is for chapter length on this site in this fandom... So if you guys could help me out a bit and tell me whether this length is good or bad, I'd appreciate it.

If you review, I'll love you forever. And If you review with constructive critisism, I'll love you past forever~ ^^ [/definitelynotreviewwhoring...]

The line breaks weren't working, so I had to put the little x's instead...


	2. Chapter 2

Hey, guys~ It's me again, with another chapter and a couple of announcements. ^^

First off, I've decided that I'm going to update this story every Monday. So even though it didn't take a week for this chapter to come out, it's probably going to for the ones that follow this. Dx Sorry. I've been writing a lot this past week, but there are just some weeks where I can't write anything at all. I figure that if I give myself a deadline I'll be more likely to work on this story regularly.

Secondly, I apologize for any typos. When I was typing this up, my keyboard decided to be an ass and not work properly. -_- The stupid keys kept sticking/not typing the letters when I wanted them to. I think I've fixed it, because it seems to be working fine now, and I'm pretty sure that I caught all the typos in the story and corrected them, but I'm going to warn you guys just in case.

Third, (This one's kind of minor and doesn't really matter, but I figured I'd say it anyways.) I'm not even going to try and mess with 's line breaks. They're a complete pain to work with and it's not worth the effort to put them in the story. I'm just going to divide up the sections like I did last chapter, with the x's.

M'kay, I think that's all…Oh wait! Anonymous review replies:

FMA Fiend:

Thank you so much! I try to keep them in character, and I'm glad that you think I did a decent job. :) And don't worry, I have every intention of finishing this story to the end. ^^

Also thanks to Inhumunculus who was awesome enough to review as well.

xxxx

Colonel Roy Mustang stormed into his office and slammed the door behind him. Or rather, he tried to slam the door. It seemed that he had forgotten that his subordinate, Riza Hawkeye, was still following him. Always quick to react, Riza managed to stop the door with her foot before it hit her, and surprisingly enough, she did so without dropping so much as one of the files she was carrying.

The Colonel muttered a quick apology and rushed over to his desk, throwing himself into his seat so hard that he had to firmly plant his feet on the ground to keep the chair from skidding sharply to the left. Upon hearing their superior's rather loud entry, Kain Fuery, Jean Havoc, and Heymans Breda looked up from their current assignments-which, mind, they had been dutifully working on until interrupted by the Colonel- and all three wondered what was the cause of Mustang's outburst this time. Fuery and Breda weren't gutsy (or stupid) enough to say anything, but Havoc brought it up without hesitation. "Chief, what the hell-" He began, but was cut short by a piercing glare from the Colonel.

Riza was the only one to remain calm during the entire scene. She walked to her desk, and promptly dropped the files down onto it. But they hardly remained there for long, as seconds after she set them down, the Colonel called for her to bring them to his desk.

"All of them sir?" She asked, knowing full well that the Colonel couldn't read them all at once without getting facts jumbled up.

"Hand me the overview files first," He ordered, holding out his hand expectantly, "Hand me the more detailed files when I finish."

Hawkeye just nodded, and, picking a few files from the large stack, brought them over to the Colonel's desk and gave them to him. Mustang just nodded, and began furiously flipping through the files, trying to absorb as much of the information as he could while Riza returned to her seat.

As soon as the First Lieutenant took her place at her desk, the other three soldiers stared at her expectantly. If they couldn't get answers from the Colonel, they'd get them from someone who most likely knew just as much as he did.

"We ran into the Elric brothers on the way to the office," Hawkeye began, not lifting her gaze upwards as she began to sort through the files tha remained on her desk, most likely prioritizing them and deciding in what order to give them to the Colonel.

"Edward must have made him really mad!" Fuery concluded, nodding his head up and down so quickly that his glasses fell off of his face and he had to hurry to pick them back up again. This explanation seemed to satisfy the youngest soldier, but Breda and Havoc exchanged a quick glance to confirm that they were thinking the same thing. As annoyed as the Colonel got by the youngest member of their team, there's no way Fullmetal could have made Mustang _that_ mad.

Riza still didn't look up. It was almost as if her eyes were glued to her desk when she finally continued, "They asked how Hughes was."

The effect of her statement was instantaneous. All three men sat back in their seats, and a barely audible "oh" could be heard.

The entire office stayed that way for a while—Hawkeye shuffling through papers, Mustang flipping through pages of files so quickly that it was impossible that he was actually reading them, Breda nodding his head in understanding, Havoc staring at the ceiling, and Fuery staring at Riza. It was an uncomfortable way to be, each of them aware of the others' feelings of despair.

"Also," Hawkeye began, snapping her three fellow officers out of their dazes, "We picked up a copy of the newspaper on the way here." After saying that, she promptly lifted one of the many stacks of papers on her desk with one hand, and reached underneath it with another, pulling out a copy of the day's newspaper. She threw it on Havoc's desk since he sat across from her, and Fuery and Breda leaned over their work to see what had been printed on the page.

In bold letters, on the bottom of the newspaper, the title of an article read:

"Maria Ross Convicted as Murderer of Brigadier General Maes Hughes."

"It says here," Breda mentioned as he pointed to a sentence near the beginning of the article, "That she's claiming to be innocent."

"That's what the Colonel is trying to figure out at the moment. She's one of Major Armstrong's men, so it is odd that she would be accused of something like this," Riza said with an impassive voice. She went back to her work and added hastily, "I believe he'd like to know if she actually is the murderer or not."

Another collective "oh" resonated throughout the room, quite nearly exactly the same as the previous one.

Another uncomfortable near-silence followed, and the office remained that way until the Colonel's phone rang.

Everyone in the room except for the First Lieutenant jumped in shock when the loud ringing of the phone broke through the discomfort, and the Colonel's hand shot out to grab it before it had even begun to ring for a second time.

"Hello?" He said into the speaker, then, "Yes, yes, let them through…Falman!"

At the mention of their friend and fellow officer's name, everyone in the office lifted their head a bit in anticipation of news.

"Yeah, I read it."

Havoc lifted the newspaper off his desk and the Breda nodded in agreement. So Falman had seen the newspaper…

The Colonel then pulled the phone away from his ear and gave it a funny look. Breda and Fuery, whose desks were closer to Mustang's than Havoc's and Hawkeye's could barely hear sounds of a fight coming from the other end of the phone. Whatever had occurred on the other side of the telephone was short lived, and after a few seconds, Mustang put the phone back to his ear.

"Hello?...Barry! What happened to Falman?" Mustang then sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes with his free hand, "Don't ever do that again. Just keep asking. There's no need to knock Falman out just to use the phone."

Havoc snickered a bit to himself, but stopped when Riza glared at him.

Everyone waited as the Colonel was silent and Barry the Chopper talked to him. Suddenly Roy nodded, a frown making its way across his features, "I understand. Thank you, Barry."

He slammed the phone down and began to restack the files he'd strewn all across his desk, "Ross is innocent."

Hawkeye stood up and she too began to stack her work into a neat pile, but Mustang put a stop to that as he ordered her to sit down and all of his subordinates to remain seated.

"I'll explain as soon as I can," was all he said before grabbing his jacket and running out of the office.

xxxx

It was late that night-or perhaps it was just extremely early on in the next morning-when Lust returned to Father's lair, Gluttony at her side. Envy was waiting for the two of them, sitting on top of a rock in the central area of their "base" of sorts, near the very throne that Father sat on most of the time. When he saw the two other homunculi enter the lair, he stood up and walked over to them, holding his hands out waiting for the good report he knew they would bring.

"Mustang took the bait," was all Lust said, and that's all Envy needed to hear. He laughed a bit, his face finally settling into a wicked smile, "So he killed Maria Ross, thinking she was Hughes killer. I am just too _good_ at what I do!" He twisted his head to the side much like a dog does when playing with its master, the deranged smile still lighting up his face.

"It seems that you're more proud than envious," Lust sighed with a roll of her eyes at Envy's immaturity, "Perhaps Father named you incorrectly."

Envy backed up a few steps and sat back down where he had been relaxing just a few seconds previously, "Ah, it seems that the always perfect Lust has finally exposed a flaw in her logic."

Lust just raised a curious eyebrow at his statement and crossed her arms, waiting for her friend to continue on. And continue he did, "See, it's impossible for Father to be incorrect, so therefore, your logic is flawed." As he finished his sentence, he stood up again and imitated her pose, crossed arms and all.

The first thing that came to Lust's mind was Havoc's comment from their date a few days earlier, and she scowled at Envy's comment before she realized what she'd done. Lust, who was so used to keeping her guard up and playing a part at all times had let her mask slip. Although, in her defense, she'd never worn said mask around Envy. He and Gluttony were the only two that she didn't have to hold up her mask around, because around them, there was nothing to hide. Both of them knew everything there was to know about her and she knew everything there was to know about them. So it seemed that when the time came that she actually did have a thought to hide from them, she couldn't do it. And it was just her luck that Envy had unknowingly brought up the very topic she wished to avoid.

Envy immediately noticed her reaction, and though he was a bit taken aback, he was more curious than anything. And he was smart enough to know that if Lust had something to say about Father, she couldn't say it in the middle of his home.

"Ah! Speechless!" Envy said quickly, covering for her inability to find words, "You're defeated once again by my wit." Then he changed his tone to a more serious one and began examining his nails, "But we've got more work to do. We need to go back to the fifth laboratory and make sure that all evidence that Maria Ross was there that night is destroyed."

Lust realized what Envy was doing and nodded her agreement, "We can't be too safe when dealing with this matter. It would be best if we left immediately." After uncrossing her arms, she twisted her torso to face her shorter, chubbier companion. Gluttony opened his mouth to speak as soon as Lust turned to him, "Lust, I'm hungry."

"I know, Gluttony. We'll find someone for you to eat. Why don't you go to sleep and in the morning I'll see what I can do for you."

"Yes, Lust," He nodded, starting to amble deeper into Father's lair as soon as Lust suggested that he sleep. Gluttony seemed to be the only one of the sins that needed to eat regularly, and he also seemed to sleep quite regularly as well, unlike Lust and Envy who could sleep, but often chose not to.

When Gluttony was out of their sight, Lust and Envy began their trek towards Laboratory Five. They travelled in silence, neither daring to utter a word, both completely conscious of the awkwardness of their situation. Each of them knew what was going to be discussed when they reached their destination, and each knew that the topic itself was somewhat of a taboo among the homunculi. They knew that even for them, creations made to be perfect and immortal, that by talking about that taboo, they were in danger.

It seemed to take hours for them to reach the remains of Laboratory five, probably because it did. Not only did they have to take the longest, most discreet routes, but as they neared the end of their walk, they began to slow down, both wordlessly dreading the coming conversation. But eventually they did reach the abandoned building, and after searching around the rubble, Envy spotted an entrance to one of the many underground tunnels they had used to get around the laboratory. Both of the sins slipped into the tunnel and walked down it for a while, and after only about a minute of walking, they saw that the other end of the tunnel had been blocked off.

"Well, we've stopped here," Lust said, and after deciding to play the whole thing down she added, "Why are we here, Envy?" She stood straight up and crossed her arms, reverting back to the pose she was in before they left Father's lair.

Envy chose not to acknowledge that Lust had even asked a question. Instead of answering her, he leaned against the blocked off portion of the tunnel and moved his hand in a circular motion away from himself, "Talk."

"What makes you think there's anything to talk about?" Lust yawned, covering her mouth with her left hand, "I'm tired, let's just go back."

Envy didn't change his expression or his relaxed stance, even though the sharp rocks that littered the wall behind him dug into his back. He had to admit that it wasn't the most comfortable way to stand, and when he spoke his voice betrayed his impatience, "Damn it, just tell me Lust. You _know_ something don't you?"

"I don't know any more than you do," she snapped. To be honest, she was telling the truth. When it came to facts, she knew just as much as her green-haired friend did, "But haven't you ever thought that it's odd that we're allowed to run so much on our own?"

Envy quickly saw that the only way to get her to talk was to make her angry. But at the same time, he couldn't disagree with her, or she'd close up. "Because we're capable. We're not mindless pawns. _Father_ gives us freedom."

"We set up the entire operation with Doctor Marco, _and_ brought him back."

"Hell yeah we did. We did a pretty damn good job too. What does this have to do with Father?" Envy stood up straight as he said it. He was starting to guess what she was getting at. _Lust wants to _desert?_ Like that loser, Greed?_

It was Envy's turn to have his question ignored. Lust hardly even let him finish before continuing on her rant, "And who killed Maes Hughes? And when a certain Colonel started investigating Hughes's death, who set up the perfect cover operation? We. Did." She extended her nails so that they dug into the dirt at her feet, "Father didn't even tell us to do those things. We did them on our own. Without his help or instruction."

Envy had to admit that she had a point, and a pretty good point at that. "Okay, so we've figured out that we're perfectly fine with doing things on our own," Envy spat, beginning to get fed up by her answers that didn't actually give anything away, "But what's new? That's how it's always been. Just be direct about whatever you're trying to tell me. It's not like you to beat around the subject."

"Is it that odd to try and avoid a subject that talking about will get me killed?" Lust asked sarcastically and looked up at the top of the cave, retracting her nails to a regular length. She wiped the silt off of them with her other hand and tried to come up with a way to indirectly tell Envy what was on her mind, "We did all of those things without Father. We've managed to basically run _Father's _operation all on our own with none of his aid whatsoever."

Envy stared at her, and for the first time in his existence, he had no idea what to say next. He then decided to go with a more off topic question to give him more time to think. "How long have you been thinking about this?" He asked, only half caring about the answer. Time itself didn't matter much to him. Whether she'd thought about something for a week or a year was irrelevant. The situation was actually rather ironic, considering that what he was trying to do at the moment was buy himself some time to think.

"Since my last 'date' with military boy," was her reply. She'd made quotation marks in the air with two of her fingers when she said the word "date," and after she finished her sentence, she paused, then counted how many day had passed since then on the very same hand, moving to her other hand when she ran out of fingers on her first, "So near a week."

Neither of them said anything for a while and they just stared at each other. It was an extreme test of their wills, both of them just standing there staring at each other, trying to see which one would break first and say something. As both of them expected, it was Envy who spoke first.

"This…is awkward."

The corner of Lust's mouth turned up into a tiny smile, and Envy's face soon took the same expression as hers. Without another word, the two headed for the entrance to the tunnel, only the sound of their own footsteps echoing in their ears. Before long, they reached the opening to the tunnel, and Envy took it upon himself to say something again, "Lust, you better not desert like Greed did."

At this, Lust did the strangest thing. She laughed. And laughed and laughed and laughed until her throat started to hurt.

"We've just covered the fact that we're both capable and _smart_ enough to operate on our own. Saying that I'm stupid enough to make the same mistake Greed did is quite insulting," she smiled as soon as her laugher died down, spinning around to face Envy, "No, I was thinking of taking Father's place as the head of this operation." She turned back to the entrance and grabbed the ledge above her with one hand, ready to hoist herself up and out of the tunnel. Right as she brought up her other hand to grab onto the ledge, she felt Envy wrap his fingers around it and yank her arm back down into the tunnel. She was about to berate him for his action, when she saw that all-too-familiar psychotic grin plastered across his face.

"Well isn't this an interesting idea…" He muttered. Lust shook free from his grasp and climbed out of the tunnel leaving her companion to stare up at her dumbly. "Just think about it, Envy," She chuckled, realizing that she'd earned herself an audience, "We will talk more later. But we've already been gone for a while. We will need to return home to avoid raising suspicion." With that said, she left, sprinting off into the dark and leaving Envy to mull over her words by himself.

xxxx

-sniff- I'm not proud of the Envy and Lust scene in the tunnel. At all. Writing it was awkward, and I'm not sure if I kept them in character. It was tough to guess how they'd react in the situation since both Envy and Lust are loyal to Father in the manga. I think it got better towards the end, but the middle of it is just…bleh. So if you guys have any advice for me on that part, I'd really appreciate it. ^^

Remember to review if you liked it~ Hell, review even if you didn't like it, and tell me what you didn't like so I can fix it later on.


	3. Chapter 3

It's Monday, and I'm here with a new chapter! But, I've got some super exciting news for you guys…

I got a beta!

Authorwithissues was awesome enough to agree to beta for me, so a huge thanks goes out to her! You should go check out some of the stuff she's written, it's all really good. –nod-

And that's the only announcement this chapter, surprisingly enough. xD

Anonymous review replies:

Anonymous: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. =D

FMA Fiend: Yeah, I guess you're right, and she is more like her anime self~ Although she died so early on in the Brotherhood series, that it makes me wonder if she would have turned out the same way if she lived for longer, ya know? ^^

xxxx

When Lust came down from her room the next morning, Envy was already seated in the central chamber of Father's lair. Father was there too, just like every other morning, relaxing in his throne.

Lust, or any of the Homunculi for that matter, never actually ever saw him anywhere besides on his throne. They knew that he had his own room, and that the entrance to it was on the southern side of the central chamber, but none of the homunculi were permitted to enter.

Pride had tried once. He'd come running into Father's lair, saying something about important news. Lust couldn't remember what the important news was though, so it must not have been _that_ important. But at the time, it had been all Pride could think about. Calm, collected Pride had seemed almost excited that morning leaving Lust to draw the conclusion from Pride's actions that the news he carried was good.

Anyways, when Pride had arrived at Father's lair, Father's throne had been empty. Without even pausing to ask if the others knew where Father was, the eldest Homunculus had stormed over to where Father's room was and thrown the door open.

It hadn't even taken a second for Pride to be whipped across the room. He'd flown all the way to the back wall, his head slamming against the cold stone with an obnoxious crack before his tiny, child-like body crumbled to the ground in a messy heap, his legs and arms tangled across each other and twisted in unnatural ways. The regeneration had taken a long time, much longer than usual, and Envy, Lust, and Gluttony, who had been the only three in the central chamber at the time, simply stared. Envy and Lust stared at Pride, Envy with an expression of maniacal shock, almost glee at his suffering, and Lust with only a small frown across her face. Gluttony had stared at Lust, one finger in his mouth and his head tilted to the side in confusion as he looked to his Lust for answers.

When Pride's body had repaired itself enough for him to stand, he did, his entire body shaking, and Father emerged from the doors that Pride had just opened. He'd walked right over to the first Homunculus and placed a single hand upon his head. Lust knew she'd never forget the expression on Pride's face or the look in his eyes. Pride had stared up at Father with such hurt, such pain, like a soldier whose commander betrayed him to the enemy. What made it seem all the stranger to her was that it was _Pride._

It was Pride who never wiped the superior smirk off of his face, Pride, who followed Father around like a dog. Pride was obviously the most loyal to Father out of all of them. Pride was the one who always looked up to Father and Pride was the one would do anything, even take his own life to please his creator.

To see that expression on Pride's face left a deep impression on Lust. Envy didn't seem to notice, he was too busy grinning like an idiot and enjoying Pride's pain to realize the gravity of what had just happened.

Father had then leaned down, whispered something into Pride's ear, given him a philosopher's stone to heal himself, and swiftly returned to his room without so much as glancing at Lust, Envy, or Gluttony.

"He-ello? Lust?"

Lust snapped out of her reminiscence as Envy began to furiously wave his hand in front of her face. She scowled and slapped it away."What?"

"There's something I need you to take care of, Lust."

It was Father who'd spoken that time, and not Envy. Lust raised an eyebrow curiously, and turned to Father. "Yes, Father?"

It took every bit of willpower she had to stand in front of him with a straight face after her conversation yesterday with Envy. She'd stayed up all night, staring at the ceiling and just thinking things over. And the more she thought about it, the more she liked the idea of taking Father's place. As the dark hours passed, she'd come up with reason after reason to go through with it.

"I need you to take care of this," he said, holding out a drawing towards her. She took a few steps to close the gap between them and snatched the picture from his hands. Upon seeing it, she frowned and narrowed her eyes.

"Prisoner Number 66, more commonly known as Barry the Chopper. I believe he died in Laboratory Five when it was destroyed," she said, not taking her eyes off of the drawing in her hands.

Father rested his elbows on the sides of his throne and leaned back a bit. "According to witnesses, this is the man who rescued Maria Ross from jail. The odds of him rescuing her due to his own will are slim."

Lust nodded and handed the drawing back to Father as she began to understand what he was getting at. Father took the sketch and continued, "I have been led to believe that he is working with someone inside the military. I do not know who, or how much he has told them. Your first priority is to destroy…Prisoner 66 was it? And your second priority is to discover who is controlling him. Dispose of them if necessary."

Lust didn't say she would do it, she didn't need to. In fact, now that she thought about it, she never told Father that she'd carry out whatever action he wished of her, she simply did. It was unnecessary for her to tell him that she'd take care of Prisoner 66 because she didn't have a choice. It wasn't a request that Father gave her, it was an order—just as everything else he said to her had been. She found it slightly odd that she hadn't realized this fact until right then.

Without a word, she walked over to the large cages on the side of Father's lair, reaching up to the top of one for a set of keys. Keys in hand, she tread over to a particularly short cage, and unlocked it, opening the door slowly. "Come, on, Barry," she cooed, urging the shivering being out of his cage. It looked up at her with wild eyes, then, sensing freedom in its grasp, darted out of the cage.

It was quite swift, but Lust was swifter. She snatched up a metal chain from the floor of the cage, and gave it a harsh tug. The chain was attached to a metal collar around the creature's neck, so when Lust yanked on the chain, the creature jerked to a stop and stumbled a few steps back towards her.

"Come on now, Barry. We're going to go find your soul," she urged softly, tugging on the metal chain so that the creature trudged a little closer to her. It turned its deformed head and made a guttural sound in its throat before charging at her. Lust easily dodged to the right and shot out her nails so that they barely skimmed across the thing's back. Blood started to seep through the torn shirt on its back and it made a squealing noise that Envy noted with a glance from his position across the room.

"Now, Barry, you'll be nice to your master, won't you?"

The creature just whined and stood as far away from Lust as the chain would allow. Lust smiled and headed for the tunnels that would lead her up to the surface. "Come, Envy," she called to the green-haired homunculus, exiting the central chamber without even checking to see if Envy would follow.

She traveled wordlessly, the only noise in the tunnels the clicking of her heels against the paved stone pathway, the creature's odd growling noises, and Envy's heavy stomping behind her. Barry the Chopper's body had decided to walk ahead of Lust, most likely since it didn't want to be anywhere near her, and Lust wouldn't allow it to walk behind her.

Envy eventually caught up to Lust, and with an expression of mock annoyance, exclaimed, "Geez, you old hag! At least wait for me."

"You walk slow," she replied bitingly, not really caring that she was taking her frustration with Father out on Envy. Envy didn't seem to mind much either. If anything, her hostility just provoked him into being more of a nuisance to her.

"Ironic. Right after we say how he never sends us on missions, he assigns a job to us," Envy pointed out, hopping ahead a few steps so that he could walk evenly with Lust. "And, right after we said that he didn't gather any intel for us, he comes to us with information about the prisoner with the armored body."

"Information I could have obtained if some idiot hadn't dragged me out to a deserted laboratory in the middle of the night," Lust countered, speeding up her steps a bit as she realized the truth in Envy's words. Envy quickened his pace to match hers, and Lust decided to keep talking so Envy wouldn't have a chance to say anything that would piss her off even more. "It's Mustang and his men. They're the ones who have Prisoner 66."

Envy considered ignoring her statement and just continuing to tease her, but her declaration had piqued his curiosity. "Oh, so you _do _know something Father doesn't. Maybe you're not such a stupid, old hag after all."

"It's the only logical explanation. We know that Mustang has been snooping around, and Jean cancelled his date with me just the other day. He's probably keeping watch on Prisoner 66. Also, one of Mustang's men, Vato Falman, has been on "vacation" since Laboratory Five was destroyed. He is probably the main keeper of the prisoner," Lust said. At that moment, Barry the Chopper's body decided to howl in excitement and attempt to speed ahead. A yank on the metal chain by Lust controlled him though, and he whimpered his submission.

"He cancelled your date? Well that explains the bitter mood-" Envy was cut short by Lust slapping him upside the head.

"Think logically for once, Envy," Lust growled. Envy reached up with one hand to rub the back of his head. It stung a bit from where Lust had hit him, but not enough to really phase the Homunculus. He only really pretended that it hurt out of habit.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. And don't the Fullmetal brat and his steel brother work with Mustang too? They were at Laboratory Five, so they might have escaped with Barry the Chopper," Envy pointed out, stretching his arms out in front of him and staring at the back of them.

Lust hadn't thought of that particular fact, but she wasn't about to give Envy the satisfaction of knowing that he came up with a decent idea before her. Without changing her facial expression, she calmly stated, "Or it's possible that they met up later. But enough of listing pointless facts we both already know. As soon as I saw the drawing, everything made sense. If Prisoner 66 is with Mustang and his men, this means that they may know that Maria Ross was not the one who killed Brigadier General Hughes. They may have freed her to save her life. Do you see the problem here?"

"Only a complete moron wouldn't." Envy sighed melodramatically, taking his arms and circling them from in front of him to above his head and outstretched towards the top of the tunnel, "And Mustang probably faked her death so no one would look for her. I _get it_. So why don't we just kill 'em all and be done with it?" For Envy, the easiest and best solution was always to kill everyone involved. Sometimes he was glad to have Lust as a partner because she'd think of ways to get what she wanted without just murdering all their suspects and witnesses.

"If we decide to go through with the plan of taking Father's place, we will not have Wrath inside the military to help us," Lust stated, keeping her eyes on the creature in front of herself and Envy. "We will need another information source inside the military. Since I already have earned Jean's trust, it should be easy to earn the trust of Mustang and his other subordinates. If we kill them, there will be no way for us to see what is going on inside the government." The facts she had just recited were so clearly obvious to her that she wondered how Envy had overlooked them. Most likely they hadn't even occurred to him, seeing as he had Lust to think about the details for him.

"You're saying 'we' a lot," Envy sneered, dropping his arms to his sides and narrowing just one eye. The effect was more comical than the mysterious expression he had been aiming for, but Lust decided not to mention it. "I haven't agreed to help you yet," he finished.

"And I haven't decided if I actually want to go through with it yet." Lust yawned, her gaze departing from the creature in front of them to Envy at her side. "Though I _was _under the impression that if I did, you would follow me."

Envy didn't reply, trying to decide how to best handle the situation. He would follow her, they both knew it, but it wasn't Envy's style to be upfront about something like that.

"Yeah, I'll do it," he said after walking beside her in silence for a little longer. "But only 'cause it sounds like it'll be fun."

"I know," Lust replied with a smile. "Trust me, it will be fun."

Envy looked up at her, then to the creature that was ambling in front of them. The gap between the two Homunculi and Barry's body had lessened, so now there was only about five yards of space between them. The thing looked almost bored, and Envy noticed that its steps had slowed considerably. "So what's the plan for the military bunch?" he asked, kicking a grey rock that was in front of him with the tip of his toe. "Because I know you have a plan."

"I do," she said, smirking. "And it's quite a good plan, if I do say so."

xxxx

"I feel all tingly, like something big is about to happen," the ex-serial killer, Barry the Chopper, said, eyeholes trained on the window in the small apartment he was being kept in.

"That's not possible. Your body doesn't possess any physical sensation," was the only reply he received, spoken by the middle-aged soldier leaning on a counter in the part of the apartment that had been classified as the kitchen.

"Something's coming, Falman," Barry insisted, picking up his large knife from the table next to him.

Vato Falman fingered the gun in front of him. It was logically improbable that Barry could sense such a thing, seeing as he was technically only a suit of armor, but it didn't hurt to be safe. He clicked the safety off. Abruptly, he reeled back and stumbled out of his chair as a pungent smell reached his nose.

"What is that sme—" Before he could finish his sentence, something that looked like a cross between a man and a gorilla hopped onto the windowsill right in front of him. It sat there for a second, half of its face covered by a mask, its hair limp, greasy and hanging in its face. The creature's mouth was half open, drooling on the plates Falman had just cleaned.

Falman drew his gun to shoot it, but his arm was shoved to the side and his bullet landed in the wall.

"Calm down, Falman!" Falman stared in front of him with shock, wondering what had caused Barry to stop him from shooting the creature. "Just don't shoot it!" Barry yelled, and Falman did the only thing he could think to do, obey.

He sprinted into the back room and stood against the wall, his gun at the ready. "Backup! I need Backup!" he shouted to the masked Xingeese girl, but she didn't seem to be listening.

"There are more out there" she said, her eyes alert as they skimmed the entire room once, and then again. She ran to the window and looked around out there as well. "A lot of them. More than twenty."

"I don't have enough ammunition," Falman stated as he looked down at his gun with grim realization. "Once they move in, we're done for." He was about to continue when Barry burst through the door, locked in combat with the creature. Without thinking, Falman fired two quick shots at the creature, both of them missing their target.

"I told you not to shoot!" Barry yelled, when the two stopped tumbling.

"He's too fast for me to hit anyways," Falman said, his hands shaking as he aimed his mostly useless firearm at Barry's attacker. "We need back—"

But Falman's words were, once again, cut short, as a man wearing all black and a ski mask kicked down the door to their apartment and fired repeatedly at the gorilla man. But the creature was too quick, and it dodged the shots easily, stopping to rest behind a table. Barry lumbered over to the other side of the table and stared at it, raising his weapon in anticipation.

The Xingeese girl looked at the man in black. "Are you here for backup?"

He nodded, and she returned the gesture."I'll go check the status outside," she stated, hopping onto the window's ledge and disappearing around the side of the building.

_Why does it smell like cigarette smoke…?_ Falman wondered, staring at the strange man who'd come as backup. "Oh!" he exclaimed as the realization dawned on him. "Second Lieutenant Havoc!"

"Why do you think I'm wearing a mask, you idiot?" Havoc screeched, then mumbled something about men with no experience in combat. Falman opened his mouth to apologize, but was silenced by a loud crash as the gorilla man attacked Barry, destroying the table between them in the process.

"We need to head outside!" Havoc yelled, and not wasting any time, ran out the door. Barry and Falman followed, all three of them not stopping until they were out in the alley and a good distance from the door.

"There might be more enemies out here," Falman voiced, the worry obvious in his tone.

The creature shot out of the door and ran straight into the brick wall on the other side of the alley. "Trust me," Havoc began. "It's much safer out here." He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he fired shot after shot at the creature. "He stinks like hell!"

Just then, the gorilla man decided to charge at Havoc, a dry roar escaping from its throat. Havoc aimed his gun at it, but the bullet stuck, and the firearm refused to perform its duty. But the creature didn't have the chance to take advantage of Havoc's misfortune. A bullet pierced its right hand, causing it to stumble backwards in pain. Not able to gauge its surroundings, it backed up into a pile of trash, tripping into it and hitting the floor with a bang.

Falman scanned the buildings around them, and he could barely make out the glint of sunlight against black metal. "Hawkeye…" he whispered, realizing that the Hawk's eyes were watching them out here. All of a sudden, it made sense why Havoc had said it was safer outdoors.

When Falman looked back at Barry, he was standing there in shock, pointing at the creature. "That's my body!" he shrieked, "The body came looking for the soul!"

"W-what?" Falman's reply was shaky. Barry's realization hadn't sunk in yet, and the soldier was admittedly confused. Havoc was more composed when he spoke, but he was just as confused as Falman was. "What do we do now? "

"That's my body! Don't ask such a stupid question!" Barry shouted, his finger shaking up and down rapidly as he began to hop up and down with excitement.

Falman took a deep breath and offered an answer. "I think you're right. So we should—" Once again, the low-ranking officer was cut off.

"It means I can chop up my own body! In all the world, there is no butcher who could chop up his _own body!_ "After issuing this rather strange declaration, Barry proved that it was possible for a suit of armor to squeal with glee, and then let out a maniacal laugh that echoed around the alley.

"Don't you want to return to your body?" Havoc ventured, pulling a spare gun from his pocket and training it on Barry's body.

"It's rotting away without its proper—"

Barry wasn't given the opportunity to complete his sentence. Before he could finish, a long, thin nail impaled him through the spot right below his head, where his blood seal was located. Another nail shot forward, narrowly missing Havoc's face, and striking Barry's body in the head.

The suit of armor clattered to the floor, and the gorilla man followed suit, both of them collapsing lifelessly on the cold stone.

Both Falman and Havoc stared in awe for what seemed like an eternity, then they simultaneously turned to see who it was that had been the downfall of both Barry the Chopper's soul and body.

Havoc's jaw dropped when he saw the culprit.

"Solaris!"

A knife was embedded in her forehead, and with a smirk, she pulled it out, throwing it to the floor the instant the masked Xingeese girl dropped from her post above. The knife landed at its owner's feet, and she leaned down to pick it up cautiously.

A flash of blue light cast long shadows down the alley, and when the brightness cleared up enough for Havoc and Falman to see, the tall, gorgeous woman from before was gone, and standing in her place was a shorter man with long green hair. He giggled and took off running into the distance. "Catch me if you ca-an!"

xxxx

Sooo, what'd you think? =) Drop me a review and tell me, I want your opinions~


	4. Chapter 4

Back again with another chapter~

Thanks again to authorwithissues, my amazing beta, and thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys are awesome!

And now anonymous review replies:

linaelric: Thank you so much. I'm glad you like it. ^^

Guardian Ruunai: A conspiracy fic it is~ xD And yup, it should be getting more complicated pretty soon, but thanks to my super slow writing...Dx nothing really too big has happened yet. But I'm working on it, promise~

xxxx

Without even considering the consequence of his actions, Jean Havoc took off after the green haired…_thing_ he'd just seen. He wanted to say person, as the being had certainly looked human, but no human had the ability to alchemically transmute him- or herself to look like a different person.

But the fact that confused Havoc the most was that the being had looked _exactly_ like Solaris. His Solaris, who he'd been dating for a good few months now and was really starting to fall for. So why had the thing originally held the face of his girl?

Riza saw Havoc take off from her position at the window on the third story of the apartment. She immediately grabbed a small handgun from the floor next to her and sprinted down the stairs, out the door, and after her fellow officer.

"Falman! Go find Fuery on the second floor and call Mustang with a status report," she ordered, not slowing down at all on her way out of the alley. Falman nodded and affirmed with a, "yes, sir!" However, Hawkeye was already gone, and she only heard the faint beginning of Falman's reply.

As she chased after Havoc, Hawkeye put the gun she'd picked up in a holster on her belt, and drew another, more specialized pistol from her other side in one fluid motion. She barely saw Havoc turn past a building that was over a hundred yards from her, and, realizing that the space between herself and Havoc was growing, quickened her pace.

She skidded around the very corner she'd just seen Havoc turn on, and once again, only caught a tiny glimpse of his back. Riza cursed under her breath and once again picked up speed.

Eventually, after running for several minutes and turning corner after corner around the near-abandoned place, Hawkeye took two long strides so that she was running next to Havoc.

No words were exchanged between the two as they both just continued chasing the creature that killed Barry. _It has to stop soon, _Hawkeye thought as she felt her steps begin to seem heavier, _Doesn't it get tired?_

But no matter how tired the two got, they always stayed just close enough to barely see Barry's killer turn into another alley. It didn't take long for Riza to realize that it was toying with them, almost as if it _wanted _the two soldiers to chase it. A quick glance at Havoc's face told her that he hadn't realized the same. He seemed so focused, so determined to catch the creature that Hawkeye had to wonder. It wasn't like Havoc to be so uptight—hell, it was hard to get Havoc to take life seriously sometimes.

She would have pondered the idea more, but Barry's killer turned into an empty warehouse on the side of the street. "Havoc, take near side," Riza ordered as she herself sprinted across the open door to the far side of the entrance, gun in hand and ready to shoot. Havoc put himself in a similar position on the near side of the door. The two nodded at each other and rushed through the doorframe.

Riza checked out the left side of the warehouse, and, seeing nothing, spun around to face forward. Havoc had already cleared his side of the warehouse and was staring at the two people in front of him, a tense scowl on his face.

Riza recognized the man on the right as Barry's murderer, but the woman on the left, who Havoc's eyes seemed to be glued to, didn't look familiar to her at all.

It was the woman who spoke first.

"Jean, you cancelled our date to look after an escaped convict?" The woman looked genuinely hurt, and continued with a small frown. "And who's she? Don't tell me you were seeing more women than just me."

Riza aimed her gun at the woman and glanced over her right arm at Havoc. "Second Lieutenant, is this the girl you were talking about?"

He nodded and aimed his gun at the woman's shorter, green-haired companion. "Her name is Solaris," he began. "Or at least, that's what she told me. I can't be sure she was telling the truth after what just happened with Barry."

The woman sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm sorry, Jean, but deception was necessary." Before either of the soldiers could react, she shot out her fingernails and knocked the shades in front of the top windows. Her companion took advantage of Havoc and Hawkeye's confusion, and he sprinted behind them and slammed the door shut.

Riza fired blindly in the direction that she assumed the green-haired one had run. She was rewarded by a flash of red light and his loud cursing. She let out two more shots, but both missed their mark and she heard the sharp sound of a bullet hitting metal—most likely the side of the building.

Havoc's girlfriend's voice echoed around the now pitch-black warehouse. "There's no need for guns," she cooed."I won't harm you, and neither will Envy."

After making a mental note that the shorter human's name was Envy, Riza lowered her gun just slightly, —not because of the woman's words, but so it wouldn't block her vision if any light broke into the warehouse. "I'm afraid that I can't put my gun away until I know for sure that you're no longer a threat," she called back, turning her head from one side to the other in a desperate but vain attempt to see through the dark.

The next thing she heard was Envy's voice. "Eh, whatever. Not like a gun could kill me anyways." He snickered, and Riza could just picture the smirk on his face.

"Now, I'd love to explain, but I simply don't have time. Actually, I'm not even supposed to be talking to the two of you," the woman explained, ignoring Envy's boastful outburst. "In fact, I'm only free to say what I want when I'm sure I'm not being watched—thus the reason for the sudden darkness."

Riza heard the all too familiar sound of a gun's safety being clicked on. "Second Lieutenant!" she hissed, "What are you thinking?"

"If they wanted to kill us, they would have already."

Jean's calm response made her tense up. His words did make sense, but they gave no solid proof that it was safe to let their guard down. _He's really fallen for her,_ she thought to herself, _to trust her so easily,_ she thought to herself_._

"I knew you were bright, Jean," came the woman's reply. She attempted to take a step closer to the two soldiers, but Riza quickly pinpointed the sound of her clicking heels and sent a bullet slightly in front of the sound.

The woman could then be heard taking two steps back, and Riza would have smiled had the situation not been so serious. When the woman spoke again, her voice betrayed an obvious annoyance. "Quick to pull the trigger, aren't we, Miss Hawkeye?"

Riza didn't give the other the courtesy of a response; she simply fired another bullet slightly to the right of the last one. Lust got the hint and took a few more steps backwards.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but explanations will have to wait, as I really must be off. You know how to contact me, Jean. Our groups can both help each other. If you have any interest in the good of your country, you will call me, and I'll explain as much as I safely can."

With that, she could be heard turning around and heading for the door on the other side of the warehouse, Envy's heavy steps nearly on the same pace as hers. When the two reached the door on the other side of the warehouse and opened it, light shot through and Riza had to squint while her eyes adjusted. She stared at Solaris's back, just waiting for the sneaky woman to turn around and attack both her and Havoc. But, besides for a quick wave back to them, she made no indication that the two soldiers even existed.

As soon as Solaris and her companion exited the warehouse, Riza rushed after them, gun at the ready, and Havoc followed close behind her. She dashed out the door and spun to both sides, but there was no sign of either Solaris or Envy.

xxxx

Envy laughed and skipped for two steps to stand next to Lust.

"That was fun. I think I played my part pretty damn well," he laughed, switching from his lopsided skip to a regular walk.

Lust smirked and retorted, "Yes, you followed _my_ orders quite well." Though she wouldn't let it show, she too was quite proud of the way that the mission had turned out, and Envy had done a good job on his part, drawing the two soldiers right into their trap. Although, Lust would have preferred that Jean came to them alone—his comrade, Miss Hawkeye, was a bit too quick with that gun for her liking; She was good enough to land a shot on Envy in pitch black surroundings.

Envy was babbling on about something unnecessary next to her, probably still boasting about his "brilliant performance." Normally Lust would humor him and listen, but she was staring intently at the shadows cast by the tall buildings on her other side.

Ironically enough, it was Envy who first saw it. Something deformed grew and shot out at him and Lust from the shadows. "Lust!" he exclaimed, ducking and hopping against the wall on his left. The sharp thing narrowly missed his shoulders and he spat in annoyance.

Lust trusted Envy's judgment, and spun around, whipping out her fingernails and taking out the dysfunctional shadow with one swipe.

Envy pushed off of the wall and yelled, shaking his fist in the air, "Geez, Pride! You trying to kill us?"

"Only get your attention," replied an eerie voice. The direction it was coming from couldn't be pointed out, considering that Pride wasn't actually anywhere near them, so Envy decided to glare at a random point in the shadows.

"Oh really?" He was still yelling. Envy never was good at keeping his voice down. "I couldn't tell, considering you almost hit me! Bastard!"

"Honestly, Pride, what is the point in attacking your fellow Homunculi?" Lust asked, sending Envy a glare that she hoped would make him calm down.

"Neither of you are hurt, correct?" Even when Pride was miles away, he could still drive Envy crazy with his smug remarks it seemed. "Anyways, I would like to inform you both that I was supervising your mission."

"Do you think we are both blind and dumb, Pride?" Lust yawned. "We were both well aware of your presence as we carried out this assignment." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and continued, "It would have been foolish for Father _not_ to send you as backup, considering the importance of this task."

Pride's tone of voice didn't change. "What happened in the warehouse back there?"

"We managed to leave Mustang's men behind without a hitch."

Envy burst in with a snicker. "Why so defensive, Pride?"

"Your behavior was suspicious. It is my job—"

"Pride, why are you interrogating us? This is unnecessary and to be honest, offensive. If you have any doubts that I did anything besides escape from the military officers, dismiss them."

The shadows suddenly went silent, and Envy gave Lust the thumbs-up sign. He congratulated her, knowing full well that Pride was still listening. "Way to tell that stuck up bastard."

A disfigured shadow shot out from near the wall and tripped Envy, who simply got up and laughed.

"I'm only asking you these questions because Father ordered so!" The shadows hissed, more of them shooting out from all sides, all narrowly missing the two Homunculi.

"Did Father order you to annoy the hell out of us with pointless shit?"

"Envy," Lust scolded, though she could barely contain her smile (and she had to admit that it would have been nice to say the same to Pride)."Language, please."

The shadows slithered away. "Fine. I believe you. Just be more polite to your elders next time."

Envy couldn't help but throw a rock at the retreating shadows.

xxxx

It was later that night when Lust received a phone call.

"Hello?" she asked, though she knew exactly who the person on the other line was.

"…Solaris?"

"Jean! I'm so glad you called!" She twirled the phone line around her finger and smiled, looking down towards Gluttony who was beside her. "Please tell me it's to set up another date."

No one answered on the other line, but she could hear several voices discussing something in the background. She bit her lip and hoped they'd pick up her hint that the line wasn't secure. _Come on, military boy, play along with my game…_

The voices on the other line went quiet, and all Lust could hear was the static from the phone.

"…Yeah. That's exactly what I'm calling about."

Lust's smile returned, and she sat down in the chair next to the phone; Gluttony hobbled over to stand by her side. "That's excellent! I was worried that you weren't interested in me anymore, since you did cancel our last date."

"Yeah, see, I was thinking, how about we make this one a group date? See, a couple of my coworkers want to go out and have dinner together, but they're afraid it'll be awkward with just the two of them."

Lust stopped twirling the phone cord and dropped it, shifting the phone to her other ear. "That would be splendid," she confirmed. "I'd just love to meet the people you work with."

Several voices could once again be heard on the other side of the telephone. They were discussing her reaction, most likely. "I'd hate to interrupt," she said, so that they'd know she could hear all of them. "But about our date, I might have to leave directly after. I wouldn't want to get _caught up."_

She didn't even try to hide the direct implication. If she knew Mustang, and she did, he'd try and set a trap to capture her before even listening to what she had to say.

"I haven't even said what day or time yet," came the quick reply. "How do you know you're busy?"

"I'm a very busy woman, Jean. You know, with my job just having moved offices and all."

Silence. Then:

"I get it. You know, I'd love to hear about your work as well, Solaris. It sounds pretty exciting."

"I'll be sure to tell you everything I can without giving up the company's secrets. Who knows _what_ my boss would do if he heard me." For effect, and to hide the double meaning behind her words to any eavesdroppers, Lust giggled like a little girl.

Gluttony stared at her in confusion. he'd definitely never heard his Lust make _that_ sound.

"Tuesday at seven, the restaurant we went to on our first date, how's that sound?"

"Absolutely amazing. I'll see you then, Jean." A click on the other line told her that her date had hung up. Lust did the same, placing the phone down into its holder.

"Who was that, Lust?"

With a small grin, she patted Gluttony's shoulder, "I'm doing some undercover work. Nothing big. Now let's go get you something to eat…"

xxxx

Fin~ Yeah, I know, the end is _beyond_ rushed. Dx I apologize.

So, what'd you think? Any guesses on what happens next? Tell me, I want to know~


	5. Announcement

Well, it's against Fanfiction dot net's rules to post something not in story format, so…read?

Xxxx

The author looked up from the stack of papers she was holding at the characters sitting across from her.

"Sorry guys," she began, "But I'm temporarily discontinuing this story."

Most of the characters just sat there as if they didn't really care. They probably didn't, seeing as a majority of them hadn't been given any (screen time?) yet.

"I _will_ be finishing this story. Guaranteed. Just not…now."

Another glance at the characters showed once again, the same, bored faces. Lust and Envy just looked pissed off.

"See, this plot bunny is kind of like my baby, and when I do write it, I want it to be really good. There are still a few kinks I need to work out of the plot, and my writing style just isn't where I'd like it to be. The plot problem was simply poor planning on my part. I decided to start writing before I had most of the plot written out. I have the beginning and the end, and I'm still working on the middle. But even if I hadn't poorly planned things out, I'd still be discontinuing this because I'm just not satisfied with my writing style. I'm going to work to be a better writer, and when I am, I'm going to re-write this story from the begging, and it's going to be a million times better than this one is and would have been."

Xxxx

…I'm sorry! Dx I really am. I feel bad about this, but…yeah. Dx Don't kill me, please?


End file.
